Controversial immigration measure goes on Arizona ballots alongside Biden-Trump contest

PHOENIX — Arizona’s Republican-controlled state legislature passed a bill Tuesday to send a controversial immigration policy to voters this November, putting the border on the ballot alongside President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump — with uncertain consequences for the presidential race and other fall campaigns.

Republicans hope it will galvanize conservative turnout in November. But Democrats’ characterization of the bill as the resurrection of controversial 2010 anti-illegal immigration legislation may push Latino turnout toward Democrats in the general election, too.

HCR 2060, or the “Secure The Border Act,” will let Arizonans decide if the state should beef up the use of E-Verify, a federal database for checking employment eligibility; require harsher penalties for fentanyl dealers; and, in its most contentious provision, give state and local law enforcement the ability to detain and deport undocumented border crossers, despite court rulings saying that power belongs to the federal government.

GOP legislators are using a provision allowing them to bypass Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who opposes the policy and vetoed similar legislation in March, and put the policy in front of voters. In a statement Tuesday, Hobbs rooted her opposition in both the economic impact of new E-Verify requirements and the potential for racial profiling.

“Business leaders, border law enforcement, and bipartisan local leaders throughout the state who oppose this bill know it will not make us safer, instead it will demonize our communities and lead to racial profiling,” Hobbs said after the legislation passed the Arizona state Senate.

The measure is all but guaranteed to encounter legal challenges if Arizona voters pass it